Really dry eyes when I wake up

Over the past couple months I've noticed that on some mornings I'll wake up with extremely dry eyes. Some mornings are better than others but I get this more often than not.

For example, today, when I woke up my eyes were really sensitive to light (which is pretty normal upon waking up) but they were also extremely dry. It felt like I had absolutely no tears in my eyes. My eyes felt "sticky". When I looked in the mirror and blinked, I could see my eyelids sort of peel off of each other because they lacked moisture.

This only lasts for about 10 minutes or so and then goes away. Has anyone else experienced this? or something similar? I have seasonal allergies, could these two problems be related?

bigsu, I also have terribly dry eyes, but I unfortunately have them all year round, 24/7. In your case though, if you are suffering from seasonal allergies, that is probably the cause of it. Do your eyes itch at all? You said that are light sensitive. I am not sure if that can be caused by dryness or allergies, so you might want to look into that. I get painfully dry eyes, especially when i wake up in the morning. My doctor recently asked me this question: has anybody ever told you that they can see the whites of your eyes when you sleep? Sometimes our eyes can roll back and our eyelids can open up a tiny bit when we sleep, causing dry eyes. I am not sure exactly what this is called, but there is a name for it. You could try sleeping with a blindfold on your eyes, that might help keep your eyes covered, if you find that you do have this problem. I have found that if I put in some ointment immediately before I go to sleep at night, that sometimes helps to alleviate the dryness in the morning. If I wake up during the night, I put it in again. The ointment that I use is called Tears Naturale PM lubricant eye ointment, preservative free. It is very good. I also keep tear drops right by my bedside, and as soon as I open my eyes in the morning, the first thing that I do is to put a drop in each eye. That immediately makes them feel better. You can use something like Bion Tears or Tears Naturale (well, that is what I use, anyway) Other brands like Visine or Murine are not good. Also, I too find that my eyes are very very sticky. Using a warm compress in the morning helps to get rid of the gunk around your eyes that is associated with dryness (it can cause mucous and all kinds of gunk to come out of your eyes). A very helpful website is [url="http://www.oculartimes.com"]http://www.oculartimes.com[/url] This explains a lot of different eye conditions and gives some explanations of treatments, etc... There is a section there on dry eyes. Definitely go see an opthalmologist if it continues, because dryness can lead to some pretty severe problems such as corneal abbrasions. Ask me any questions that you like, as I am very experienced with this.

I started using Lacri-Lube eye ointment before I go to sleep at night. It really helps. My eyes no longer feel dry when I wake up.

Hey, purple... in another thread I saw you say that styes can be caused by dry eyes? I have noticed that I have a recurring stye on my upper left eyelid over the past month or so. I went to my doctor and he didn't seem too concerned. He said that if I wanted I could use a tea bag as a hot compress to promote healing but they usually only take about a day or two to resolve themselves. You think they could be related to seasonal allergies? What does a hot compress do? If the styes go away on their own do I need to use a hot compress? They don't hurt or anything... if I didn't look in the mirror I wouldn't even know I had one.

Well, a hot compress might help to shrink a stye. I never had one (that's about the ONLY eye problem that I haven't had!), but I use them for clogged oil glands (tiny little bumps at the base of the lashes, resulting from dry eyes). They help to get rid of those. A hot compress also helps people like me who get mucous on their eyelids, because it cleans away dried up crust, and get all of the mucous off of the lashes. Some people just get recurring styes. I can't really help you much there, because as I said, I fortunately have never had one. I do get pimples on my eyelids though (shown them to the dr., not a stye) and hot compresses also help to shrink and get rid of those. Hope I have been of some help. I am glad that the ointment is helping your dry eyes.

Elyse

P.S. I don't know about dry eyes causing styes, but they do cause the clogged oil glands that I mentioned.

I thought styes were the same thing as the tiny little bumps at the base of the eyelash that you say are caused by clogged oil glands. It's like a tiny little white bump right on my eyelid margin. My doc told me that all a stye really is is a pimple. Which makes sense because isn't a pimple just a clogged pore?

Oh well... as long as it doesn't hurt and resolves itself spontaneously, I'm not gonna worry about it.

yeah, but sytes are usually painful, aren't they? And i think they are sometimes red and maybe swollen. As I said, I don't think I have ever had one myself. And yes, a pimple is just a clogged oil gland, but the oil glands on your eyelid usually get clogged only if the eye is dry, because there aren't enough tears to flush it out. As long as it's not painful, I guess I wouldn't worry about it. By using a hot compress a few times a day, you can possibly unclog the oil gland by pushing out (from the heat) or washing away all of the built up bacteria on the eylid.

I also wake up with dry eyes in the mornings and during the day if there is a fan turned on in the room my eyes start feeling dry and sometimes this causes for me to get a headache. Have anyone experienced this as well.

My dry eyes ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get worse when there is a fan turned on in the room, or if it is windy out. The reason you could be getting a headache from this is just from simple eyestrain. Your eyes are probably very sore and irritated, so you are struggling to keep them open. You are also probably blinking more than usual (I do) so that might cause some tension in your head. Have you been checked by an ophthalmologist about your dryness? If your eyes are really that dry, you can have your tear ducts plugged to stop the tears from draining from your eyes (a very very simple in-office procedure.)